


An Act of Gratitude

by mormolyce



Category: The Worst Witch (TV 2017)
Genre: Ada Cackle (Referenced), Dinner date scenario, F/F, Mildred Hubble (Referenced), just something light-hearted - i don't have the stamina for angst anymore lmao
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-07
Updated: 2018-08-07
Packaged: 2019-06-23 06:18:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15600159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mormolyce/pseuds/mormolyce
Summary: Following the turmoil of Mildred's first year, Julie Hubble decides it's worth chatting with the infamous Miss Hardbroom on her own terms.





	An Act of Gratitude

Hecate stood on the balcony restlessly, rocking back and forth as if she were poised to leap away at any moment. She’d never been inside a tower block before, and quite frankly after ten minutes of trying to find the entrance it had become apparent that a bit of high-altitude espionage was by far the swiftest way to track down the Hubbles’ apartment. Still, now she was here she wasn’t sure what to do. She’d only accepted the invitation at Ada’s insistence - build a good rapport with the parents and all that. Why Ms. Hubble had asked for her specifically was a mystery, especially given their… turbulent exchange at parents’ evening.

(In all truth the shock to her system hadn’t been entirely unpleasant – most of the parents were as afraid of her as the pupils, and to have someone so brazenly defy her was really quite refreshing. If Ada hadn’t interrupted they could’ve had a very invigorating sparring match. At any rate, it was easy to see where Mildred got it from…)

Hecate watched as Julie Hubble flounced around the kitchen, entirely obvious to the pointed hat teetering on her balcony. She didn’t so much as walk but skip in the most muted way possible, hopping between the worksurface and kitchen table as if it took half her energy to keep her legs under control. She was smiling too; the same sort of obnoxiously joyful expression Hecate had seen on Mildred a few times. She glanced over at the table, dishes already laid out on a nauseating yellow table cloth, and pursed her lips. She could only stand here for so long.

Julie jumped – quite literally – when Hecate tapped on the balcony doors with her broomstick, apparently deigning non-magical glass too offensive to touch with her bare hands. Still, once she’d recovered, one hand flying up to her chest automatically, Julie smiled broadly, striding over to the balcony doors and letting Hecate inside.

“Miss Hardbroom!” she exclaimed brightly, “I wasn’t sure you’d come, the message I picked up on the mirror was so garbled!”

“Yes, well,” replied Hecate, voice taut, “I can assure you the message _I_ left was perfectly clear.”

“Ah, well!” continued Julie, with alarming cheerfulness, “These things happen!” She shut the door and marched around Hecate to stand in front of her.

“Can I take your broom?”

Hecate glared at her.

“To put in the hall,” Julie explained flatly. “Along with your coat and hat.” She gestured to the coat stand in the hallway and Hecate gave a thin-lipped smile in an attempt to hide her embarrassment.

“If you insist,” she replied, stiffly. She handed Julie her hat as politely as she could manage, before taking off her coat and draping it over Julie’s outstretched arm. She did not, however, relinquish her grip on the broom.

“Don’t worry,” said Julie with a wry smile, “We’re not expecting company.”

“It’s not ‘company’ I’m worried about Ms. Hubble. You may have been blessed enough to never see your daughter’s attempts at flying, but not all of us have been so lucky.”

Julie rolled her eyes.

“Mildred’s at the cinema with a friend. Besides, if she went anywhere near your broom she’d be shut inside for the rest of the holidays, that I can assure you of.”

There was a beat.

“The… cinema?” replied Hecate, slowly dawning upon the fact that she no longer had the cultural upper-hand. Within a few seconds Julie evidentially came to the same realisation, and she smiled widely.

“She’s out with a friend. One of the girls on the fourth floor.”

“I see,” said Hecate curtly. Julie held her free palm open and outstretched, and Hecate gingerly place the broom in her grasp.

“Please, sit!” said Julie brightly, nodding at the kitchen table as she strode past it and into the hallway.

Hecate lowered herself cautiously into one of the kitchen chairs and sat on the edge of her seat, back as straight as a post. She cast her eyes over the contents of the table – she never knew vegetables could be so colourful. The food at Cackles’ was basic at best, but even before then her experience with witching food largely comprised of various shades of grey. Compared to what she was used to, Hecate was forced to admit, the plates in front of her made a pretty impressive display. Say what you like about Julie Hubble, but she knew how to keep her child healthy.

As if on cue Julie sashayed back into the room, dropping effortlessly into the seat opposite Hecate. She leant over and picked up the tongs in the salad bowl.

“Salad?” she asked.

Hecate raised her plate and Julie lifted it out of her hands.

“Uh, yes. Thank you.”

“You know,” continued Hecate after a small pause, “I’m a little surprised to learn Mildred’s not here.”

“Oh, really?” replied Julie, heaping salad onto Hecate’s plate. “And why’s that?”

“I’m sure you’re well aware of her track record for mischief,” said Hecate, flatly.

“Oh, I know, but honestly Miss Hardbroom, she doesn’t even know you’re here. She had nothing to do with it. Lasagne?”

Hecate’s eye twitched as she processed the notion that someone other than Ada might genuinely want to spend time with her.

“I, erm, yes, please.” She didn’t even know what lasagne was. “What do you mean Mildred doesn’t know?”

“She doesn’t know,” said Julie with a shrug. “To be honest,” she continued, dolloping a lump of lasagne onto Hecate’s plate, “I wanted the chance to talk to you alone. _Without_ being transported to that damnable castle.”

Hecate’s face performed an Argentine Tango of unadulterated panic.

“I see,” she said dryly.

“Olives?”

“Erm, no, thank you,” said Hecate weakly, deciding she was already going to be ingesting more than enough complementary colours. Julie handed Hecate her plate back and began attending to her own, piling on far more salad than Hecate thought was reasonably possible.

“Mildred told me about what happened just before summer, you see.”

Hecate warily picked up her fork and attempted to skewer a stack of spinach leaves.

“How you sent her home to protect her.”

Hecate’s eyes grew wide and she shoved so much salad into her mouth any rabbit would’ve been ashamed of himself.

“How you believed she had the power to rescue Miss Cackle.”

If she chewed any harder she’d probably snap her jaw.

“And how… generous, you were to her when she failed the final flying exam.”

Hecate’s brain decided to combine functionary digestion with blind panic and she gulped loudly.

“I guess…” Julie put her plate down and reached across the table to put one hand over Hecate’s. “I just wanted to say thank you, you know? Not many teachers have believed in Mildred like that, even before she went to a magical school.”

Hecate made a few gargling noises before her brain remembered how to form words.

“Yes, well,” she stammered, “I, I wouldn’t, uh… “

“Miss Hardbroom?” asked Julie, frowning as she leant over the table. She stared at Hecate with concern. “Are you alright?”

The faint smell of lavender collided with Hecate’s nostrils, and her last functioning braincells were sent spinning into a polyphasic short-circuit.

“Quite alright,” she squeaked.

“Well, if you’re sure,” said Julie, patting her hand a few times before moving away. Hecate’s shoulders sagged with relief, before her indomitable mental engine kicked back into action and she sat up straight as a pin. She coughed a few times to dislodge a rogue piece of spinach.

“As I was saying,” continued Hecate eventually, clearing her throat in an attempt to give her natural nastiness the chance to warm-up, “I wouldn’t get used to it if I were you. Mildred may be a rather… extraordinary witch, but that doesn’t mean she’s exempt from the same procedures as everyone else.”

“Oh, I know,” said Julie, picking up her knife and fork and cutting into the square of lasagne on her plate. “But as long as she has an equally extraordinary teacher, I’m sure she’ll do well.” She popped the lasagne into her mouth and smiled gleefully at the horror spreading across Hecate’s face. Julie could practically hear the gears in her brain turning as she cranked out a retort.

“Don’t, push, your, luck, _Ms. Hubble_.”

Julie shrugged and smiled brightly.

“It’s only the truth,” she replied after swallowing. “Now, how are you finding that salad?”

Hecate opened her mouth in contention, but Julie Hubble beamed at her with the unassailable confidence of a woman who killed with kindness, and against that power even Hecate Hardbroom could not compete. She shut her mouth and pursed her lips.

 “It’s quite acceptable,” she said, tightly. “Thank you _very_ much.”


End file.
